This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-006427, filed Jan. 15, 2002, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus which contains a functional component, such as a hard disk drive, in a housing. The present invention particularly relates to a structure which absorbs pressure applied to the functional component when the housing is deformed.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic apparatus, such as a portable computer, comprises a main body and a display unit supported by the main body. The main body comprises a housing. The housing contains functional components, such as a printed wiring board equipped with a CPU, a hard disk drive, and the like. The housing has a flat box-like shape composed of a bottom, a top, and plural peripheral walls. The top of the housing is provided with a palm rest. The palm rest is the part the user puts his/her hands on, and is positioned at a front end part of the housing. The hard disk drive is positioned between the palm rest and the bottom.
The housing of the electronic apparatus is formed to be thin and compact to improve portability.
Thinning of the housing leads to reduction in the thickness of the palm rest, and narrows the gap between the palm rest and the hard disk drive. Therefore, when pressure is applied to the palm rest, for example, the thin palm rest is deformed downwards and collides with the hard disk drive. As a result, the hard disk drive receives the impact, so recorded data may be corrupted.
An information processing apparatus disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-182068 comprises a housing which includes a disk drive. The housing has a pair of tilt legs. The tilt legs tilt the housing downwards toward the front side. The disk drive is positioned at a front end portion of the housing. The disk drive is contained in the housing, and set in a horizontal attitude when the housing is tilted. A gap is hence created between the bottom and the disk drive. This gap increases toward the front side of the housing.
The gap between the disk drive and the bottom of the housing, however, does not allow the disk drive to sink when downward pressure is applied to the disk drive. The information processing apparatus constructed in the structure as described above consequently cannot prevent the impact on the disk drive.
A portable computer disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-182366 comprises a housing including a hard disk drive. The hard disk drive is positioned at a front end portion of the housing, and is supported by the housing via a holder part. The holder part is connected, at its front end, to the housing via two hinges. Two springs are interposed between the rear end of the holder part and the bottom of the housing. The springs push up the rear end of the holder part to set the hard disk drive into a horizontal attitude. Thus, the rear end of the holder part collides with a stopper, keeping the attitude of the holder part constant. The stopper is provided on an upper surface of the housing.
According to this structure, the hard disk drive can revolve in the thickness direction of the housing. The front end of the holder part, however, cannot shift in the thickness direction of the housing because the front end of the holder part is the fulcrum of revolution of the hard disk drive. Consequently, downward pressure cannot be absorbed when it is applied to the front end part of the holder part. Impact affects the hard disk drive and may corrupt recorded data.
Embodiments of the present invention provide an electronic apparatus capable of absorbing pressure via revolution of a functional component when pressure is applied to the functional component from the housing.
An electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a housing having a bottom wall, and a functional component contained in the housing. First and second gaps are created between the functional component and the bottom wall. The second gap is larger than the first gap. A supporting member is interposed between the functional component and the bottom wall, to support elastically the functional component in the housing. The supporting member has a first part positioned in the first gap and a second part positioned in the second gap. The second part has lower rigidity than the first part.
In this structure, when pressure which acts to press the functional component toward the bottom wall is applied, the first and second parts of the supporting member are elastically deformed. In addition, the second part is more easily deformed than the first part. The functional component therefore revolves about a fulcrum which is the portion contacting the first part. Thus, the pressure applied to the functional component is absorbed.
Additional embodiments and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The embodiments and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.